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2020 Ditrău xenophobic incident
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The 2020 Ditrău xenophobic incident refers to the incident that started on 26 January 2020 in the village of Ditrău (Hungarian: Ditró), Harghita County, in Romania, in which around 1,800 ethnically Hungarian locals protested the employment of two, later three Sri Lankan workers by the bakery Ditrói Pékség. The locals, led by the chaplain of the village, protested that the bakery's working conditions dissatisfied them and that they feared the immigrants could impose their culture and threaten the Hungarian local ethnic identity. On 11 February, a petition signed by 1,800 people was sent to the town hall of the village with several requests, among them, the improvement of these working conditions, the end of immigration to the village and compensations and apologies to the population.
2020 Ditrău xenophobic incident | |||
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![]() Perspective of the village of Ditrău | |||
Date | 26 January 2020 – March 2020 | ||
Location | 46°51′39″N 25°34′26″E | ||
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Methods | Protest, discrimination, social exclusion | ||
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Köllő Katalin and other company directors Local chaplain | |||
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The incident affected the popularity and income of the company, with workers and owners being repeatedly threatened by locals. The two Sri Lankans were forced to move in Gheorgheni. Furthermore, the incident received great media coverage. Other previous cases that happened in other cities began to receive more attention, and conflicts between the country's Romanian ethnic majority and the Hungarian minority sparked. Sociologists and journalists have said that this is an opportunity to start debating the existing discrimination against foreigners and the overexploitation of many workers in Romania. In the end, the owner of the company Köllő Katalin met with the chaplain to discuss the situation. On 3 March, Kelemen Hunor, president of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), announced that the situation had finally normalized.